Anyone in the mood for a spot of violence? This chapter and the next are a little bit darker than the previous ones, but I forgot how much fun it is to write cliffhangers so I'm being a bit self indulgent I suppose. :P Cheers for the wonderful reviews last time round, you guys genuinely don't know how much they mean/help me write this story! And so it begins...
Despite being mostly full, the Kings Head pub was eerily quiet for a Saturday night, so quiet in fact that when Sean Esdon leant on the bar to order his drink, he could actually hear the old wooden surface groaning under the weight of his arms. Ordering a round of beers, he chucked £30 onto the bar, not bothering waiting for change as he stalked back to his table, ignoring the looks he was getting; he didn't have the energy or the patience to fight anyone tonight, not without the threat of completely loosing his temper and killing someone anyway.
The news of Mikey Mullins' death had spread like wildfire through their area and whilst most people were busy cooking up their own little versions of what had happened to him, Sean and the boys knew the much more frightening truth. Having the likes of Tommy Hatcher gunning for you didn't exactly make for a good nights sleep.
"Mate, maybe we should just go home, yeah?" his younger brother Lee glanced about nervously as Sean sat down, the scrapping of his chair along the wooden floor drawing even more attention to their table.
Shaking his head in disgust, Sean cast a glance at the girl behind the bar who still hadn't finished pouring their pints.
"And why the fuck would we do that?" he asked harshly, staring at his little brothers face, the mark left by Pete Dunham's foot the other night still marring his skin.
"Because people are looking at us," Lee pressed. "Mate, everyone knows what happened to Mikey and-…"
"Oh, shut up, Lee," Sean pointed at him. "No one wants to fucking hear your little conspiracy theory, alright?"
"Conspiracy theory?" Lee laughed. "Sean, a few hours ago, the leader of our firm was found in a ditch with half his fuckin' face missing. You might not be worried about it, but I fucking am. Especially if what people are saying is true and-…"
"And what?" Sean interrupted. "What are people saying, Lee? Is it upsetting you, sweetheart?"
"I know as well as you do that Tommy Hatcher did this," Lee hissed. "The boys agree with me,"
"Do they now?" Sean cast a glance around the rest of the table, almost laughing as the boys looked down, afraid to be spoken to. "Well come on lads," he leant back in his chair and kicked the leg of the table, making it shake. "Lets 'ave it, I mean just what 'ave you girls been talking about when I'm not 'ere?"
"Oh come on, son," Jamie Thompson leant forward and met Sean's eyes, surprising the slightly older man when he didn't detect even the tiniest bit of fear in them. "Last time we saw Mikey he was fucking wittering on about his little meetings with Hatcher, about how he was going to do Dunham in and then he goes missing for half a fucking week only to be found in a ditch," he shook his head. "I know you're not the sharpest tool in the shed but it doesn't take a fucking genius to put it all together, Sean."
"You'd best watch your fucking mouth there, son," Sean narrowed his eyes. "I'm not in the mood for your shit right now,"
"What are you gonna do about it?" Jamie taunted him. "Mikey was the head of this firm and he's gone, so all bets are off as far as I can tell,"
"I'm the head of this firm now," Sean told him, ignoring the look of fear in the barmaids eyes as she practically dropped the tray of their drinks down onto the table and scurried back to the safety of the bar.
"You fucking what?" Jamie laughed. "Says who?"
"Says me," Sean picked up his pint and took a long sip. "Anyone else got a problem with that?"
None of the boys spoke up, even when Jamie glanced around at them desperately looking for someone, just one of them to back him up.
"Dear me little Jamie," Sean winced. "Looks like you've been out done," he leant forward and lowered his voice. "So how's about, you shut your fucking mouth before I do it for you, eh?"
"You reckon I'm scared of you, mate?" Jamie stood up, challenging him and if possible, the bar seemed to get even quieter.
"You fucking well should be," Sean snarled. "And right now, you're starting to get on my tits and I've got bigger things on my mind than deciding whether or not I can be bothered to beat the shit outta ya, so why don't you just be a good little boy and sit the fuck down?"
"Alright," Jamie conceded, pursing his lips and staring at Sean arrogantly. "You wanna play the Major, go ahead," he shrugged. "Personally, I can't fucking wait to hear your suggestions for what we do now. We've got that Dunham cunt still strolling around like he owns the place, half of fucking Millwall getting more than a little curious to see what our internal organs would look like on the outside and the old bill knocking on our door every five seconds asking bullshit questions about when, how and where,"
"I couldn't give a fuck about the pigs," Sean shrugged. "And as for Dunham, he's not going anywhere and its not like we're the only ones out for him, is it? Someone else will get in there if we don't,"
"So what about Millwall?" Lee asked quietly, not looking up from his pint.
"Mikey was a stupid twat," Sean snorted. "He went about it all the wrong way, you don't stand off with a bloke like Hatcher on your own, not unless you've got a fucking death wish,"
"You want to go after Hatcher?" Jamie laughed. "Christ almighty, have you lost your fucking mind, mate?"
"We do it tonight," Sean continued, ignoring the comment completely. "We do it quickly and get the fuck outta there, alright, no fucking hanging about,"
Downing the rest of his pint, he sloppily wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and stood up.
"Meet me back 'ere at about 1," he glared at them. "Any of you tarts decide not to show up and believe me, Hatcher will be the last of your worries,"
The rest of the boys watched him as he strode out of the pub, letting the door slam behind him; the noise level rose just the tiniest bit as a sudden relief seemed to ripple through the crowd at the bar.
"Great," Jamie spat. "This is just fucking perfect ain't it? Your brother gets to fulfil his retarded little fantasy of playing the Major and we all get killed because of it?"
"Doesn't matter," Lee shrugged. "Even if we don't show he'll come after us,"
"What?" Jamie frowned.
"We follow him tonight and Hatcher kills us," he told him simply. "We don't show up, Sean kills us,"
The men around him descended into silence once again and as he downed the dregs of his pint, Lee Esdon knew he was thinking the same thing as everyone else: no matter what decision they made in the end, no matter what went down in the next 24 hours, they were all dead men walking.
"How can you eat that?"
Allie looked up from the gigantic slice of ham and pineapple pizza she was about to bite into and raised an eyebrow as the entire GSE stared at her in horror.
"Its pizza," she frowned.
"Nah, love," Swill shook his head, gesturing to the slice of pepperoni he had. "This is pizza, that," he pointed at her. "…is a fucking abomination! Fruit has no place on a pizza,"
Grinning at them, she merely shrugged and bit into it, emitting a long 'Mmmmm' as she chewed it happily. What the hell did these men know about taste? She'd seen them put ketchup on roast lamb for God sake.
"Dunham, sort your bird out," Swill grimaced. "That's just plain wrong, that is,"
Giggling, Allie looked at Pete who was sat next to her grinning as he shook his head, one hand holding a slice of pepperoni pizza, the other one draped behind her on the back of the sofa. It wasn't that often that they had a group night in, but with everything that had happened in the past few days, they were all to tired to go out.
"Speaking of plain wrong," Ned piped up, reaching for his bottle of beer and smirking at Matt. "You fancy filling us in on what happened with that bird you was with in the Abbey the other night? The one with teeth as big as her tits,"
"Hey!" Matt half laughed. "She wasn't ugly or anything,"
"She was alright," Swill chimed in. "Nice arse, I'll give you that, but those teeth," he shook his head. "I didn't know whether to shake her hand or feed her a carrot,"
The room instantly filled with laughter and Matt muttered something under his breath before picking up a stray trainer and chucking it at Swill.
"Ay, Ay," Pete raised his eyebrows and grinned at the American. "Kept that one quiet, didn't you, you cheeky bitch,"
"I don't really want to get into it," Matt cast a quick glance at Allie.
"Hey," she frowned. "Don't hold back on my account," she dropped the remainders of her pizza back into the box and wiped her hands on a napkin, leaning her head back so it was resting against Pete's chest and smiling when he kissed her hair. "I've been friends with this lot for the past four years so I'm almost certain that nothing you say can shock me,"
"That sounds like a challenge," Swill grinned. "Did I ever tell you the story about that bird I dated who had banana fetish?"
"Alright, enough!" Allie covered her ears as Pete and the rest of the boys pissed themselves. Standing up, she reached for the pile of empty pizza boxes on the table and shuddered slightly. "I'm gonna go chuck these out,"
"I'll come with you," Pete moved to stand up, but Allie shook her head, playfully pushing him back down. "I'll be fine," she smiled. "And besides, the sooner I get out of here, the better. At least that way I can spare my innocent mind,"
"Innocent my arse," Swill smirked at her and raised an eyebrow. "Dunham's told us a few stories which beg to differ with that little statement,"
"Yeah, well Dunham doesn't know half the stuff I tell Lara so I guess we're even," she smiled sweetly, catching the fear in her fiancé's eyes. "And as for you," she pointed at Swill. "The less I know about your arse, the better," Allie laughed, dodging the napkin he tossed at her as she yanked the front door open and stepped into the hallway.
She jogged down the old wooden staircase, careful not to trip as she strained to see over the top of the pile of boxes she was carrying. Reaching the bottom floor, she smiled as she spotted one of Pete's neighbours, a forty something woman wearing far too much herbal perfume walking through the door.
"Hi," Allie greeted her. The woman didn't respond, just held the door open with a bored expression on her face as she waited for Allie to walk through it. Smiling, she stepped out onto the porch and turned back to face her.
"Thank y-…" her sentence was cut short as the woman let go of the door and it slammed in Allie's face. Blinking in shock, she shook her head and made her way down the path towards the recycling bin near the gate. Lifting the bin with a cautionary finger, she grimaced as something wet dripped onto her hand and with a small squeal which even she rolled her eyes at, she chucked the boxes in and let the lid slam back down. Vigorously wiping her hand on the back of her jeans, Allie glanced around her to make sure no one had witnessed her little outburst over OTT girliness and sighed thankfully at the seemingly empty street.
It had only just begun to get dark, a sure sign that spring was approaching and so she took a minute to simply enjoy the fresh air; a moment which was quickly ruined when the same pain from the past few days rippled in her stomach making her wince. Maybe that pineapple pizza wasn't the best of ideas after all, she thought, or maybe it was more to do with the four Bounty bars she'd eaten before she arrived at Pete's. Sighing, she rubbed her tummy with one hand and made her way back up the porch steps to the front door which was now shut.
"Shit," she whispered, biting her lip. The front door to the building was self locking when it shut and she'd left her key in the flat as well as her phone. Running a frustrated hand through her hair, Allie crept around the side of the building to the set of stairs which led up to the roof and figured that was her best option. Spring may have been approaching but it was still quite chilly and so by the time the boys noticed she had been missing for too long, chances are she would have frozen.
Just as she lifted her leg to climb over the seemingly pointless waist high gate to get onto the ladder, someone grabbed her arm and she spun around expecting to see Pete. Only the eyes that she met which bored fiercely into hers didn't belong to Pete Dunham, but she would have known them anywhere.
"Oh my God," she whispered, fear sweeping through her and making her shake.
"Don't scream," Lee Esdon instructed her in a harsh whisper.
Shaking her head, Allie yanked her hand away from him and tried to run, but he grabbed her again, harder this time and shoved her against the wall.
"Pete!" she screamed, her eyes widening as Lee's hand clapped down over her mouth, silencing her.
"Will you shut up!" he hissed, but seeing the fear in the girl's eyes, he relented somewhat and let go of her. "I'm not here for you, alright? I'm not gonna hurt you,"
"Then what the hell do you want?" Allie whispered, determined not to let him know how scared she was.
"I need to talk to Pete," he told her honestly and she stared at him as though he was crazy. "I know, I know it sounds fucking stupid but…" he rubbed the back of his head with his free hand, the other one gripping Allie's arm. "Some serious shit is about to kick off and I don't know who else can help me," he looked her in the eye and saw something flash in the green depths. Sympathy perhaps?
"Why the fuck should he?" she spat suddenly. "Have you forgotten that you tried to kill him two weeks ago?"
"Yeah, and what do you think he was trying to do using my head as a fucking football the other night?" he shouted at her. "Now are you gonna be a good girl and go up there and get him or am I gonna have to go myself?"
Before Allie could answer, he suddenly disappeared, letting go of her arm so quickly that she almost fell down with him.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" Pete shouted through gritted teeth as he pinned the younger man against the wall, holding him by the throat not tight enough to stop him breathing, but tight enough to let Lee know that if he pushed him enough, all it would take was that little bit more pressure.
"You alright, sweetheart?" Dave took Allie's arm and examined it, making sure she was ok.
She nodded mutely, her eyes glued to the scene in front of her, though she did shoot him a grateful smile when he wrapped his arm protectively around her shoulders.
"Alright, Dunham?" Lee hissed with a faint smile on his lips. "Long time no see,"
"And to think your brother branded me as the cunt who never knew when to shut his mouth," Pete shook his head and glared dangerously at him. "Now, I'm a patient bloke, so I'll give you three seconds to come up with fucking good excuse for why you thought it'd be a smart idea to attack my girlfriend,"
"I didn't fucking attack her," Lee spat, trying to turn his head to look at the blonde in question but unable to due to Pete's iron grip on his throat. "Look at 'er, she's fine,"
"You don't want to be looking at her sunshine," Pete shot back. "In fact, if I get the impression you're so much as thinking about her and I'll finish what I started the other night," throwing a quick glance over his shoulder at his girlfriend, he watched as she nodded faintly, her way of letting him know that she understood why he needed to do this.
"Dave," Pete didn't have to say anymore than that, his tone was enough for Dave to know what he had to do.
"Come on, darlin'," he gently tugged on Allie's hand. "Let's go inside, yeah? Make sure that arm doesn't need amputating,"
Allie met Pete's eyes once more and swallowed hard before following Dave around the side of the building to the front door, his arm still locked around her shoulders comfortingly.
"I didn't come 'ere for your bird, Dunham," Lee looked him in the eye. "I came 'ere to find you,"
"And what the fuck could we possibly have to chat about, Lee?" Pete queried.
"Mikey's dead," Lee told him and then shot a glance at Bovver over Pete's shoulder. "But then, you already knew that didn't you? Right little gossipy bitch you are, aren't you Bov?"
"You wanna get to the fucking point there, Esdon?" Pete jammed his arm a little harder into the man's throat. "Because I'm getting mighty fucking bored,"
"Sean's stepped in as the Major," he winced, turning his body slightly in hopes of easing the pressure Pete was putting on him.
"Sean Esdon?" Bovver laughed along with the rest of the boys. "Christ almighty, you havin' a bubble or what?"
Pete smirked and glanced over his shoulder at them before turning his attention back to Lee.
"So Sean's decided he's tired of nappies and wants to try using the big boy pants?" Pete pursed his lips. "Am I supposed to be scared or something?"
"My brother's fucking stupid," Lee told him, his eyes wide as he spoke in a rush. "But we both know Dunham, that if anything that means he's more dangerous than anyone else." Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, Lee shook his head as he spoke. "Pete, I need you to step in,"
"You what?" Pete frowned, fighting the urge to laugh as the reality of what Lee was asking him actually sunk in. "You want me to sort out your brother for you?" Snorting, Pete let go of the younger Esdon brother and stepped away from him, looking him up and down in disgust. "Mate, do I look like fucking Jeremy Kyle?" he asked, getting a round of laughter from the boys. "If you've had some little tiff with your brother, that's not my fucking problem, alright? Now fuck off out of 'ere before I really lose my temper."
Turning on his heel, Pete walked back down towards the entrance of the ally way, the rest of the boys behind him.
"Can you fucking believe that?" Ike asked, fishing his cigarettes out of his pocket and lighting one. "Cheeky fuck,"
"I don't really expect anything less though," Swill shrugged. "Not from those Esdon cunts anyways, do you remember that time in Birmingham when he-…"
"Pete!"
All the boys stopped and turned around to face Lee as he stood half under the street lamp, the sickly orange glow emphasising the bruises on his face as he stared at them desperately.
"Sean's planning on going after Hatcher," he shook his head. "Just to prove a point, just to make himself look big,"
"Well, I'd say he's fucked then, wouldn't you boys?" Pete raised his eyebrows. "Go home, Lee, before mummy notices you're missing."
"You stupid fuck," he laughed as the GSE turned their backs on him again. "You don't get it do you?" he watched as Pete turned to face him once more, making no effort to hide the fury in his eyes. "If he gets Hatcher, you can bet he'll come for you next. Only he's not like you, Pete, Sean's fucked in the head, you know it as well as I do," he took a step forward and met Pete Dunham's blue eyes, needing to see the fear register there to know that he had gotten his point across. "Sean won't stop with you. He'll go for everyone you care about," his voice cracked slightly and he coughed, ignoring the pain caused by Pete's earlier grip on his throat. He watched as Pete looked up at the building quickly and knew he was thinking about the girl inside, about the lengths he would go to to stop anything happening to her. "He's heading over to Millwall tonight, we're meeting at 1." Lee told them. "It's up to you what you do but just think about what this could lead to, Pete. We're talking holy fucking war here,"
Pete stared back at him for a long moment, not saying anything until finally the fight seemed to evaporate from Lee's body and he shook his head.
"I've done what I can," he shrugged. "Its up to you now, Dunham,"
With that, he turned away and began walking down the road, Pete's eyes following him until he was nothing but a dimly lit blur in the distance.
"You're not seriously fucking thinking of listening to that little cunt, are you?" Bovver piped up, jamming his hands into his pockets as he stared at the back of Pete's head, his eyes tracing the faint mark where his stitches had been a few days ago. "Pete?"
He turned to face them, his blue eyes seeming almost black as he caught each of their gazes' quickly before walking back up the steps which led to his apartment.
"What time did Lee say they were heading over to Millwall at?" he called.
"1," Ike answered, feeling the knots forming in his stomach as Pete paused briefly at the door.
"We're at the Kings Head by 12," he told them firmly. "Not a second later,"
Pushing the front door open, he didn't wait for their responses as he kicked the door stop in place and then began making his way upstairs. If Sean wanted a fight, then he'd get one, because when it came to protecting the people he cared about, his mates, his family, Allie…Pete Dunham feared no one.
Even though at that moment, he fierce beating of his heart was telling him that for the first time in 24 years, that probably wasn't a good thing.
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